Re: Wouldn't it be cool?

I managed to cook chicken on the first of November, AND a pumpkin dish to catch up from the month before. I cooked an Indian feast for my daughter, her fiance, and his mother who had come to visit from Canberra. So it was a special dinner! There was rice, cheese and peas, and a dal aswell.

The pumpkin dish was an old favourite, quick and simple. It is made special by the fried lentils, they are put in first with the mustard seeds. I couldn't imagine how this would work the first time I tried it, but they go all crunchy and nutty and really make the dish. Also, no chili!

SPICED PUMPKINGently fry 3tbsp toor dal, 1tsp mustard seeds, and 10 curry leaves in 2tbsp oil until the dal is golden and the seeds pop.Add 1 tsp of finely chopped ginger and stir.Add 2tsp ground coriander, 1tsp ground cumin and 1/2 tsp ground turmeric and stir well.Add 500g of cubed pumpkin (I used butternut) and a tsp of salt with water to almost cover. Stir well and put on lid to simmer until pumpkin is soft.

POULTRYThe chicken dish was my first try at Butter Chicken. I didn't follow the Worlds best butter chicken recipe that has a thread all to itself on this forum, because I had what looked like a very easy Ainsley Harriott recipe that I wanted to try. I don't know if I had copied it out wrong, but I started getting worried and went back to the worlds best thread, and asked advice from my sister, and tinkered around a bit. But it came out delicious! And once I have streamlined it, it will be very easy: fry the onions, seal the chicken, pour over a garlicky, spicy (plenty of chili) cream/yoghurt mix and stick in the oven until cooked. It was the stand out dish of the night!

So hooray! I am calling myself up to date and am ready to face December!

Re: Wouldn't it be cool?

Bump.

Are we still on for making edible gifts come 1st December?

As said made fruit mince, mini puds and cakes (and preserved lemons) when we had our preserving "challenge".

Can still do pesto, chutney, flavoured oils and (perhaps) shortbread (traditional and the Greek version- it depends on the temperature and the humidity-, spiced nuts, Frizz's caramelised onions, herbed feta and herbed olives.

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